Factors contributing to blog failure (Updated 2025)

So, you have a great blog (at least you think it’s excellent), and you have dozens or hundreds of posts, but your traffic is very low. Maybe even double digits… perhaps even single digits… you feel disappointed.

But how could it be, given how much work you’ve done?

Here’s the brutal truth, the factors for failure from Copyblogger:

1. No one is listening.
2. You’re not very good.
3. You simply don’t care.

Harsh!

Here’s how it works…

When you write in the same way as someone who is bashing their head against a wall, you’re spending a lot of energy and putting yourself in a lot of pain, but nobody cares in the least little bit. Getting more readers requires less head-bashing and more reflection on exactly what you are communicating.
Let’s take this list one at a time.

No one is listening

There might be good reasons for this. For example, as I write this post, I know it won’t be read for several months because I do not want any traffic to this website until I have more content available. My traffic is low because I am not promoting the site. Once I start promoting this site, I will get more readers… and you will get more for your site as you learn to promote it.

You’re not very good.

You could attract many visitors to your website by heavily promoting it… yet you would acquire very little business because you aren’t very good at turning readers into customers. Perhaps your articles are poorly written, and readers find no value. Your sales chain is possibly terrible, and people won’t complete a sale because it’s too hard for them to follow through. Perhaps your design doesn’t engage your prospects and customers, and they leave before learning.

You just don’t care

People write—publicly and privately—for a large number of reasons. If you don’t care that anyone reads what you write, no one will likely, in fact, read what you write. If you are a terrible writer, you can be sure they won’t read you.

Look out for next week’s article for turning these three factors for failure around, into factors for blogging success.